A few months ago, we learned that Starz had cancelled its big budget pirate production Black Sails. Luckily, series lead Toby Stephens already seems to be on to his next adventure---and it's a big one. News this week indicates the Black Sails actor has signed on for the Lost in Space remake that is coming together over at Netflix. Along with Toby Stephens, Sense8 actor Maxwell Jenkins has also been cast.
Toby Stephens is set to play astrophysicist John Robinson, the patriarch of the Robinson clan in the Lost in Space remake. The original series followed a family on a ship heading into space in the hopes of creating a new colony on a planet circling Alpha Centauri. Things go awry when a stowaway appears on board, wreaking havoc and altering the ship's flight path, which causes them to become---you guessed it---lost in space. The original series ran for three years on CBS and produced 83 episodes, becoming a cult classic.
In the series, John Robinson is traveling with his family, including his wife Dr. Maureen Robinson and his kids Judy, Penny and Will. Per Deadline, Maxwell Jenkins will be playing Will on the series, which isn't expected to hit Netflix until 2018.
That should be alright for Toby Stephens, who stars on Black Sails as that show's lead. The Starz drama is known for filming episodes well in advance of the season premiere. This means that technically Black Sails has been cancelled, but only after the upcoming Season 4 hits the schedule. Luckily, because we won't be getting new episodes of Black Sails until midseason, it won't seem like Toby Stephens is out of a gig for quite some time. In fact, he'll have Black Sails airing in early 2017 and then Lost in Space in 2018. In terms of shooting schedules, this should be pretty seamless, as well.
Lost in Space reportedly isn't changing a lot from the original series, but I'm guessing we should expect some changes in production value---in fact, I'm guessing we deserve a higher quality sci fi drama. The original series was actually set in a future that was actually only the 1990s, so I'm assuming that will change for the Netflix series, as well. In terms of reboots, this TV series is one of the ones we are most excited for, namely because a lot of stuff has changed in terms of science fiction shows and the technologies they can incorporate. We're very excited to see what Netflix can do with this genre series.
For now, you can find out what Netflix has coming up with our Netflix TV premiere schedule. In addition, we'll also let you know as soon as the final season of Black Sails gets a premiere date.
